Many reviewers describe excellent onboard service, enjoyable meals, and lively entertainment. Another group reports serious hygiene issues, food-related illness, and housekeeping lapses. Several guests also mention booking mistakes and slow or unhelpful customer support. Overall, the reviews split clearly between very positive trips and major operational problems.
Examples from available reviews (Sep 2025 – Mar 2026).
MSC World America exceeded expectations with excellent design, food and service.
“MSC World America exceeded our expectations.”
Severe hygiene and food safety failures caused sickness and poor facilities onboard.
“High number of sickness on board due to food and hygiene.”
Booking inclusions disappeared at payment and customer service was unhelpful.
“Be very careful when booking with MSC”
Modern cabins, good food and entertainment delivered very good value for money.
“very good value for money”
Many reviewers praise cabin and dining crews for friendly, helpful service on board. Others describe breakdowns during busy periods, such as slow dining service and chaotic embarkation or disembarkation. The lowest-rated reviews sometimes mention indifferent behaviour from frontline staff.
Many guests point to affordable itineraries, modern cabins, and what they see as strong value for the price. Critics mention surprise charges, frequent upselling, and too few quiet areas, which they say undermines the holiday’s value. Concerns about value show up in both mid- and low-rated reviews.
Positive feedback often focuses on organised daily schedules, varied shows, and enjoyable shore trips. A noticeable counter-group reports disappointing ports, overcrowded dining spaces, and voyages affected by sickness. Reviews that rate the trip highly frequently praise the entertainment.
Several low-rated reviews flag serious food-safety and hygiene problems, including reported illness and poor cleanliness. Some also mention cigarette smoke near pool areas and occasional pest sightings in cabins. Comments about clean ships and modern cabins appear too, but they are less common within the negative accounts.
Reviewers repeatedly mention booking problems, including missing inclusions at payment and conflicting information before sailing. They also describe delayed refunds, refusals to provide written explanations, and weak handling of third-party issues. Positive or neutral communication experiences appear rarely in this dataset.
The dataset splits sharply between very positive holiday accounts and severe negative incidents. High ratings often credit the crew and onboard facilities, while low ratings focus on hygiene lapses and unmet booking promises. This stark contrast shows up consistently across the reviews.
For each review, the core experience based on original source reviews.
Sources: Trustpilot (60) · Quotes shortened · As of: March 2026
Relaxing holiday in a pleasant environment with new places to visit.
“Relaxing holiday in a good environment with new places to visit.”
Staff were polite and cabins cleaned with fresh towels daily.
“cleaning off cabin and clean towels every day was great.”
Adriatic cruise was fantastic with helpful staff and spotless cabins.
“The Adriatic cruise on MSC Opera was fantastic.”
Overall great cruise but reviewer raised concerns about hand hygiene.
“But for me MSC need to promote /enforce hand hygiene.”
Good staff and a clean ship with plenty to do, limited seating.
“Good staff clean ship plenty to do on board”
First cruise was fantastic with excellent cleanliness, staff and food.
“Highly recommend MSC.”
Helpful staff, very good food and entertainment throughout the cruise.
“Very good helpful staff”
Everything was great, especially the friendly, hardworking staff onboard.
“especially all the hard working friendly staff”
Ship was noisy with few quiet areas and extra charges required.
“The ship is extremely noisy with no quiet areas to relax”
The yacht club experience was disappointing overall.
“Yacht club experience disappointing”
Staff were praised and ship was clean, though restaurant food had issues.
“Staff amazing, very clean ship and cabin.”
Great service, friendly staff and good entertainment onboard.
“Great service and friendly staff.”
Insufficient seating in the Vertuosa lounge and infinity entertainment areas.
“insufficient seating in the Vertuosa lounge bar”
The cruise experience was very disappointing this time around.
“Very disappointing this time around !!”
Fantastic cruise with perfect weather, itinerary, food, cabin and staff.
“Fantastic cruise from start to finish.”
The reviewer highlights the staff's friendliness.
“The staff friendliness”
Beautiful ship with amazing multinational staff and special praise for Mylyn.
“Special mention goes to Mylyn in the main dining room.”
Fantastic ship with friendly staff, many activities and new friends made.
“Fantastic ship 🚢, friendly staff, plenty of things to do”
Virtuosa offers excellent food and shows, though bar seating can be limited.
“The Virtuosa is a brilliant ship with lots to do.”
Customer service was worse than the previous year and refused to resolve issues.
“reception staff just didn’t want to resolve any issues.”
This page combines submitted experiences with public reviews from platforms such as Google, Trustpilot, etc. Recurring points are summarised without changing the content of reviews.
MSC Cruises runs a global fleet of passenger cruise ships, offering scheduled holidays across several regions. It sells cabin types ranging from basic interior rooms to premium suites. Typical onboard features include multiple restaurants, theatre shows, pools, and family-focused facilities. Travellers can book through the official website, travel agents, and authorised tour operators. MSC Cruises is part of the MSC Group and operates under international maritime safety and port regulations.